E 
46Z.I 

N46P6 


California 

egional 

icility 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  COMMANDER'S  YEAR 


THE 
COMMANDER'S  YEAR 

BEING  VARIOUS  ADDRESSES 


MADE  BY 


LEWIS  S.  PILCHER,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

THE  COMMANDER  OP  U.  S.  GRANT  POST  No.  327,  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  or 
NEW  YORK  GRAND  ARMT  OF  THE  REPUBLIC  DURING  THE  YEAH  1913 


BROOKLYN,  NEW  YORK 
1914 


DEDICATION 

To  my  comrades  of  U.  S.  Grant  Post, 
of  Brooklyn,  I  dedicate  this  little  book 
in  which  I  have  brought  together  the  vari- 
ous  addresses   which   the   duties   of   the 
commandership  have  required  from  me 
fc  during  the  past  year.     Love  of  country 
|  will  be  found  to  be  the  dominant  note 
2=  through  them  all ;  pride  in  the  part  taken 
g  by  my  comrades  of  the  Grand  Army  in 
preserving  the  country's  flag  from  dis- 
honor    and     in     making     possible     the 
$   mighty  achievements  of  this  country  since 
w    those  years  of  war  has  not  been  concealed ; 
§    but  in  addition  I  hope  that  each  comrade 
will  find  in  it  a  personal  message  of  afFec- 
tionate  good  will  to  himself,  responsive  to 
8    the   many  evidences   of  such  good  will 
g    which  I  have  myself  received  from  all 
g    throughout  my  "  Commander's  Year." 

LEWIS  S.  PILCHER. 
a 

2    145  Gates  Ave.,  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 
January  1,  1914. 


461844 


CONTENTS 

I.      THE   COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED 11 

The  Installation  Address. 

II.    "  THE  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS  " 21 

Greeting    to  the    Ladies  Auxiliary 
Society. 

III.  GRANT,  THE  EXEMPLAR  OF  PATRIOTISM.  33 

To  the  Union  League  Club  at  the 
Grant  Birthday  Dinner. 

IV.  THE  NARROW  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 41 

To  the  Associate  Members. 

V.    A  BUILDING'S  HONOR 59 

Introducing  the  Speaker  at  the  Mort- 
gage Jubilee. 

VI.    THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 67 

An  Episode  During  the  Return  from 
Chattanooga. 


THE  COMMANDERSHIP 
ACCEPTED 


REMARKS  MADE  AT  THE  INSTALLATION  OF  THE 
OFFICERS  OF  U.  S.  GRANT  POST,  No.  327. 
DEPARTMENT  OF  NEW  YORK,  GRAND  ARMY 
OF  THE  REPUBLIC,  JANUARY  14,  1913 


THE  COMMANDER'S  YEAR 


THE  COMMANDERSHIP 
ACCEPTED 

COMRADES:  I  accept  this  gavel  and 
assume  the  responsibilities  of  the  Com- 
mandership  of  this  Post  for  the  year  with 
much  diffidence  and  reluctance.  This  is 
based  upon  my  knowledge  of  what  is  prop- 
erly expected  from  the  man  who  occupies 
this  honorable  position,  and  from  a  famili- 
arity with  the  very  conspicuous  ability  and 
usefulness  which  has  uniformly  charac- 
terized the  administration  of  my  predeces- 
sors in  this  office.  I  doubt  if  any  similar 
organization  can  show  such  a  list  of  able, 
enthusiastic  office  bearers  and  laborers — 
are  not  the  terms  synonymous  ? — so  many 
of  whom  still  survive  and  remain  among 
the  most  active  of  the  Post's  members. 

Realizing  how  little  my  own  training 
and  daily  work  fit  one  for  the  duties  at- 
tending leadership  in  such  an  organization, 
I  would  certainly  have  peremptorily  de- 
clined to  entertain  the  proffered  duty, 
notwithstanding  the  great  honor  attend- 

11 


12       COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED 

ing  it,  had  there  not  come  with  it  the 
assurance  that  every  assistance  would  be 
given  me  by  those  most  familiar  with  the 
requirements  of  the  Post  in  all  their 
ramifications. 

In  whatever  position  in  life  I  have  been 
placed,  I  have  meant  never  to  shirk  a  duty 
when  it  was  placed  before  me.  It  is  as  a 
duty,  therefore,  that  I  accept  this  com- 
mandership — a  duty  the  responsibilities 
of  which  are  lightened  by  the  unanimous 
call  of  my  comrades  and  by  the  many 
kindly  expressions  of  good  will  which  have 
come  to  me  from  so  many  sources  during 
the  past  month.  In  return  for  all  this  I  can 
simply  now  pledge  to  you  my  utmost  ef- 
forts for  the  good  of  the  Grand  Army  in 
every  relation,  for  the  advancement  of 
Grant  Post  in  particular,  and  for  the  wel- 
fare of  every  comrade  as  an  individual. 

We  are  greatly  honored  by  the  attend- 
ance at  these  ceremonies  of  so  many  of  our 
comrades  from  other  Posts  and  of  others 
of  our  friends  and  neighbors.  We  ap- 
preciate this  evidence  of  your  interest  in 
the  work  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Re- 
public. 

The  Associate  Society. — In  particular 
we  would  express  our  pleasure  at  the 


COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED        13 

presence  of  so  many  of  our  associate  mem- 
bers. If  there  is  one  sentiment  which  over- 
shadows everything  else  in  the  existence  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  it  is  that 
of  loyalty  to  country.  It  is  that  which 
sent  us  to  the  front  fifty  years  ago,  and  it 
is  primarily  for  the  perpetuation  of  this 
sentiment  that  we  have  been  organized  and 
have  labored  during  the  years  that  have 
intervened  to  the  present  time.  Is  it  not 
because  you  share  in  this  sentiment,  Com- 
rade-Associates, that  you  have  allied  your- 
selves with  us,  and  give  to  us  the  benefit 
of  your  social  and  financial  aid?  We  oc- 
casionally find  men  who  scoff  at  the  idea 
of  loyalty  to  country,  as  also,  indeed,  to  the 
existence  of  any  high  and  noble  purpose  in 
the  mind  of  any  man.  According  to  them 
all  men  are  venal,  self-seeking  is  universal, 
and  professed  nobility  of  purpose  is  a 
cloak  for  the  pursuit  of  ignoble  ends !  De- 
votion to  a  high  ideal  is  a  fantastic  con- 
ceit !  It  is  true  that  in  the  practical  affairs 
of  men,  mixed  motives  often  determine  ac- 
tion ;  gold  and  clay  often  are  found  in  the 
same  image ;  but  that  man  is  the  happiest 
man  and  most  nearly  understands  his  f el- 
lowmen  who  recognizes  in  them  the  best 
and  minifies  the  baser  qualities.  Love  of 


14       COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED 

country  is  no  fantastic  conceit.  Danger 
threatening  the  honor  or  material  welfare 
of  our  land  would  call  it  forth  in  as  great 
and  magnificent  a  volume  to-day  as  it  did 
in  the  days  of  '61.  Your  association  with 
us  in  the  affairs  of  this  Post  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  we  welcome  and 
interpret  as  to  a  large  degree  an  expres- 
sion of  your  loyalty  to  native  land. 

Ladies  Auxiliary. — The  gracious  pres- 
ence here  this  evening  of  the  ladies  of  the 
Auxiliary  Society  brings  an  influence  into 
these  halls  which  is  full  of  the  happiest  au- 
gury for  the  future.  To  not  many  of  us 
is  left  the  fond  love  and  the  happy  com- 
panionship of  the  wife  or  mother  or  sister 
who  bade  us  good-by  so  many  years  ago 
as  they  sent  us  out  to  obey  our  Country's 
call.  I  doubt  if  any  of  us  appreciated 
then  the  sacrifices  the  women  of  our  house- 
holds made,  and  the  love  of  country  which 
they  displayed  as  they  sent  forth  those 
who  were  dearest  to  them  in  life,  knowing 
that  many  of  them  would  never  return. 
We  were  young  and  reckless  then;  the 
noise  of  the  shouting  and  the  glory  of 
strife  were  in  our  hearts;  the  nobility  of 
our  cause  possessed  us.  They  were  left 
behind  to  wait,  to  hope,  to  fear;  in  many 


COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED       15 

cases  to  mourn.  We  have  in  some  better 
measure  since  realized  what  they  did  and 
what  they  suffered,  and  we  have  loved 
and  honored  them  the  more  for  the  sacri- 
fices they  made,  and  their  memory  now 
is  the  more  hallowed  by  our  keener  sense 
of  what  they  then  suffered  for  us. 

Now,  in  these  later  days,  the  women 
who  have  taken  place  by  our  sides  as  our 
wives,  and  the  daughters  with  whom  the 
years  have  blessed  us,  have  come  to  us  and 
have  said,  "  Give  us  some  part  in  the 
work  which  you  are  doing  in  preserving 
the  traditions  of  the  Grand  Army;  let  us 
share  in  your  spirit  of  loyalty  and  in  the 
efforts  at  the  relief  of  those  of  your  com- 
rades or  of  their  bereaved  families  who 
have  been  overtaken  by  adversity."  This 
is  the  spirit  of  the  Ladies  Auxiliary.  The 
noble  work  which  these  women  have  done 
and  are  doing  is  appreciated  by  us  all  with 
the  deepest  gratitude.  That  they  are  with 
us  is  a  source  of  great  gratification,  and 
the  spirit  which  they  display  commands 
our  admiration  and  pride. 

And  now,  my  Comrades,  one  word  more 
"Lest  we  forget"  These  are  years  of 
reminiscence  and  of  semicentennial  anni- 
versary observance.  Fifty  years  ago  we 


16       COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED 

were  in  the  darkest  period  of  the  years 
of  strife.  Disloyalty  at  the  North  was 
rampant  and  seemed  likely  to  paralyze 
the  efforts  of  the  Government.  The  great 
Gladstone  had  declared  that  the  South 
had  already  founded  a  new  nation,  and 
that  it  should  be  recognized  as  such  with- 
out further  delay  by  Great  Britain.  Lee 
with  his  army  had  penetrated  into  Mary- 
land, and  though  checked  at  Antietam  had 
been  permitted  to  retire  unmolested  into 
Virginia,  and  with  little  interference  was 
making  his  preparations  for  a  second  in- 
vasion of  the  North.  This  threatening 
cloud  was  made  still  darker  by  the  awful 
lightnings  of  Fredericksburg,  whose 
dreadful  slaughter  was  still  filling  the 
North  with  mourning,  just  fifty  years 
ago.  To  stem  the  ebbing  tide  of  loyal 
effort  and  to  awaken  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  world  Lincoln  now  was  signing  the 
proclamation  of  emancipation  which 
wiped  the  stain  of  negro  slavery  from  the 
fair  escutcheon  of  the  Republic. 

Not  until  six  months  more  had  passed 
did  a  break  in  the  clouds  occur  and  then 
both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West  did  the 
light  break  through,  and  at  Gettysburg 
and  at  Vicksburg  the  beginning  of  the 


COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED       17 

glorious  end  was  ushered  in.  During  the 
fateful  morning  of  July  3,  1863,  the 
high-water  mark  of  the  tide  of  rebellion 
was  reached  at  Gettysburg,  and  then  be- 
gan the  ebb  which  from  that  time  gradu- 
ally fell  until  at  Appomattox  it  reached 
its  low- water  level !  It  was  at  Vicksburg, 
however,  that  the  most  momentous  events 
were  occurring.  In  the  swamps  and 
bayous  of  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and 
Mississippi  had  been  exhibited  a  tenacity 
of  purpose,  a  breadth  of  vision,  a 
mastery  of  strategy,  a  keenness  and 
comprehensiveness  of  foresight,  an  in- 
fluence over  men  that  marked  a  supreme 
commander.  When  Vicksburg  fell, 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  had  reached  his  fulness 
of  development  in  the  science  of  war;  he 
had  become  a  Titan  fit  to  grasp  and  con- 
trol gigantic  affairs.  His  star  was  in  the 
ascendant,  and  the  world  began  to  recog- 
nize that  this  was  the  man  upon  whom  the 
hopes  of  the  Republic  rested. 

But  all  this,  my  Comrades,  was  fifty 
years  ago !  What  a  high  privilege  to  have 
had  some  share,  however  humble,  in  the 
events  of  those  days,  and  how  fortunate 
are  we  to  have  been  preserved  in  strength 
until  this  day  to  now  recall  and  recite 


18       COMMANDERSHIP  ACCEPTED 

them  to  the  men  of  the  present  generation  1 
But  it  is  a  new  and  greater  country  that 
commands  our  loyal  allegiance  to-day. 
The  beginning  of  the  last  half  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  has  given  way  to  the 
first  half  of  the  Twentieth  Century.  A 
new  world,  material,  moral,  mental,  has 
been  created.  New  problems,  interna- 
tional, national  and  civic,  call  for  solution 
and  adjustment.  We  will  not  forget  the 
past ;  let  us  not  in  our  devotion  to  the  past 
overlook  our  own  duties  in  the  present. 
Charity,  loyalty  and  fraternity  command 
our  earnest  and  constant  endeavor  in  our 
daily  intercourse  with  each  other;  let  us 
not  close  our  ears  to  that  other  and  higher 
call  which  comes  to  such  a  body  as  Grant 
Post  to  take  its  part  in  every  movement 
which  makes  for  a  civic  betterment,  for 
a  purer  national  conscience,  and  for  Peace 
and  Good  Will  among  men  everywhere. 


THE  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS 


REMAKES  MADE  AT  THE  DINNER  TENDERED 
TO  THE  LADIES  AUXILIARY  SOCIETY  BY  U.  S. 
GRANT  POST,  MARCH  18,  1913 


II 

THE  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS 

IT  is  my  privilege,  as  Commander,  to 
welcome  this  evening  the  Ladies  of  the 
Auxiliary  Society  to  the  hospitalities  of 
this  Post.  This  I  do  most  heartily,  and 
with  the  wish  that  I  could  put  in  better 
phrase  an  adequate  expression  of  the  ap- 
preciation by  this  Post  of  the  kindly  inter- 
est in  its  welfare  which  these  ladies  have 
so  long  shown  and  still  continue  to  show. 

This  annual  event  has  come  to  be  looked 
forward  to  by  the  Veterans  of  U.  S. 
Grant  Post  as  one  of  the  chief  events  of 
the  year,  one  with  a  special  charm  be- 
cause of  its  family  reunion  character.  It 
is  the  "  Girl  I  Left  Behind  Me,"  "  When 
Johnny  Comes  Marching  Home,"  and 
"The  Star  Spangled  Banner"  rolled 
into  one. 

As  you  know,  Mrs.  Pilcher  and  I  are 
barely  home  from  a  trip  to  Panama  and 
Jamaica.  Our  minds  are  still  full  of 
our  trip,  and  the  inclination  is  irresistible 
foir  me  to  indulge  at  this  moment  in  a  bit 
of  reminiscence  of  another  trip  to  the 
same  waters  more  than  forty  years  ago, 
which  may  not  be  out  of  place  because  it 

21 


22  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS 

led  through  some  perils  to  flowers  and 
smiles  and  wedding  bells,  and  ultimately 
to  the  Ladies  Auxiliary  of  U.  S.  Grant 
Post. 

During  the  five  years,  1867-72,  it  was 
my  privilege  to  continue  in  the  service 
of  my  country  as  a  medical  officer  in  its 
Navy. 

At  that  time,  forty-five  years  ago,  the 
one  great  spectre  which  attended  the  duty 
of  the  naval  surgeon  in  the  West  Indies 
was  yellow  fever.  My  own  service  was 
not  free  from  an  encounter  with  this 
dread  visitor  and  it  is  to  this  experience 
that  I  would  now  refer. 

During  the  recent  weeks  I  have  again 
enjoyed  the  balmy  trade  winds  of  the 
Caribbean  Sea;  the  same  blue  waters  are 
there  which  I  enjoyed  in  my  youth;  the 
flying  fish  still  lift  themselves  by  their 
glistening  finny  wings  from  the  water  in 
scurrying  squads  as  the  steamer  ploughs 
its  way  among  them,  and  the  iridescent 
sails  of  the  Portuguese  men-of-war  still 
float  by  us  in  stately  procession.  The 
never-ending  succession  of  brown  islets 
of  the  sea  weed  from  the  Mexican  Gulf 
still  pass  by  us  in  their  silent  course  along 
their  long  journey  to  their  final  resting 


LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS  23 

place  in  the  bosom  of  the  great  Sargasso 
Sea  beneath  the  equator.  The  decks  of  the 
present  day  steamer  are  now  filled  with  an 
expectant  host  of  holiday  making  squad- 
rons of  the  immense  army,  modern  suc- 
cessors to  Morgan's  buccaneers  of  four 
hundred  years  ago,  who  are  making  a  new 
invasion  of  Panama,  an  invasion  that  has 
been  made  possible  only  by  the  work  of  an 
army  surgeon.  The  enemy  that  defeated 
De  Lesseps  and  the  French  engineers, 
that  caused  every  railway  tie  of  the  rail- 
road that  crosses  the  isthmus  to  cost  a 
human  life,  that  ever  hovered  as  a  threat- 
ening incubus  over  the  desired  pathway 
between  the  Western  and  the  Eastern 
ocean,  has  been  driven  back  by  medical 
science  and  the  singular  fact  remains  be- 
yond dispute  that  the  crowning  commer- 
cial and  engineering  achievement  of  the 
Twentieth  Century  has  been  made  possi- 
ble by  medical  science!  Pardon  the  spe- 
cial professional  pride  that  leads  me  to 
exult  in  this  way,  but  the  conditions  are 
so  different  from  those  which  prevailed 
at  the  time  when  I  last  sailed  over  these 
seas  that  the  feelings  which  are  awakened 
by  a  sense  of  the  new  powers  of  to-day  as 
I  once  more  find  myself  in  these  scenes 


24  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS 

will  not  permit  suppression;  then  it  was 
in  a  pest-stricken  ship  that  we  were  flee- 
ing to  a  Northern  refuge;  now  it  is  in  a 
holiday  throng  that  we  gaily  and  confi- 
dently approach  the  former  plague  spot 
of  the  world! 

In  the  summer  of  1867  three  assistant 
surgeons  were  on  duty  at  the  Naval 
Hospital  in  Brooklyn.  These  were  Mur- 
phy, Martin  and  myself.  Yellow  fever 
was  prevailing  that  summer  at  the  Pensa- 
cola  Naval  Station  and  among  the  first 
victims,  as  usual,  were  the  medical  officers 
on  duty  there.  To  Murphy  came  the 
order  to  go  to  their  relief.  Without  hesi- 
tation he  went,  only  to  quickly  sicken  him- 
self and  to  die  like  his  predecessor ;  Martin 
was  ordered  to  the  South  Pacific.  His 
duties  soon  took  him  to  Panama.  Here 
the  same  fate  overtook  him.  He,  too, 
was  stricken  with  yellow  fever.  He  died. 
The  turn  of  the  third  of  these  messmates 
was  not  long  deferred.  Relieved  from 
duty  at  the  hospital  he  was  sent  to  a  ship 
bound  for  the  West  Indies,  where  for 
nearly  two  years  it  cruised,  going  wher- 
ever the  protection  of  the  Nation's  inter- 
ests required  its  presence.  Meanwhile, 
the  first  uprising  of  the  Cubans  against 


LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS  25 

Spain  had  taken  place,  and  in  the  harbor 
of  Havana  was  to  be  made  a  demonstra- 
tion of  our  naval  strength.  Among  the 
ships  ordered  there  were  my  own  ship, 
the  Penobscot,  and  the  naval  apprentice 
training  ship,  the  Saratoga.  We  had  not 
been  at  Havana  a  week  when  I  was  sum- 
moned to  visit  the  surgeon  of  the  Sara- 
toga, whom  I  found  dying  from  yellow 
fever,  the  first  fruit  of  an  epidemic  to 
prevail  on  that  ship.  The  immediate  de- 
parture of  the  fever-stricken  ship  for  a 
colder  latitude  was  imperative.  It  was 
one  of  the  last  of  the  old-fashioned  sail- 
ing frigates  to  be  retained  in  the  service. 
It  was  used  as  a  schoolship  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  naval  apprentices  and  there  were 
seventy-eight  of  these  boys  on  board  her. 
Beside  these  there  was  a  contingent  of 
sailors  and  officers,  224  souls  in  all.  To 
whom  now  should  be  entrusted  the  medi- 
cal care  of  the  Saratoga  during  its  slow 
flight  from  the  pestilential  city  where  it 
had  become  infected?  The  medical  officer 
of  the  Pendbscot,  for  the  moment  serving 
it,  was  not  yet  23  years  of  age ;  he  was  the 
youngest  surgeon  in  the  fleet;  this  was 
his  maiden  voyage.  For  two  weeks  at 
least  the  Saratoga  would  be  isolated  in 


26  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS 

the  wide  ocean  as  it  sailed  northward. 
Would  it  not  be  better  to  replace  this  in- 
experienced young  surgeon  with  an  older 
man?  This,  as  I  learned  afterward,  was 
a  question  that  was  under  discussion  on 
the  flagship.  On  the  other  hand,  I  was 
already  at  the  post  of  duty;  since  my 
arrival  at  the  bedside  of  the  dying  sur- 
geon, Quinn,  I  had  remained  ministering 
to  the  Saratoga's  sick.  Whatever  of  ex- 
posure was  possible  had  already  been  in- 
curred by  me.  Surely  I  ought  to  remain 
with  the  ship  and  it  would  be  folly  to  send 
another  medical  officer  to  incur  further 
peril.  Such,  indeed,  was  the  view  taken 
by  the  Admiral  and  the  fleet  surgeon, 
and  I  remained  on  the  Saratoga,  to  my 
own  great  satisfaction,  for  I  would  have 
felt  it  as  a  sort  of  slur  upon  my  own  pro- 
fessional character  to  have  been  displaced 
thus  in  the  face  of  the  enemy !  Had  it  not 
been  for  that  very  day  and  trial  that  I 
had  entered  upon  the  service,  and  should 
I  refuse  my  "baptism  of  fire"  when  it 
came! 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  the  days  that 
followed.  Wafted  by  favorable  winds  and 
by  the  helpful  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream, 
the  bulky  frigate  slowly  fled  northward. 


LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS  27 

It  was  in  the  early  days  of  June,  1869. 
The  summer  sea  was  at  its  loveliest.  But 
the  dread  infection  continued  to  do  its 
work  within  the  fated  ship;  day  by  day 
new  cases  of  the  fever  sickened;  with 
many,  thank  God,  the  disease  terminated 
in  convalescence,  but  in  far  too  many  the 
most  dreaded  symptoms  early  appeared 
and  the  toll  of  death  was  daily  taken.  As 
each  morning  its  officers  assembled  at  the 
mess  table,  each  looked  with  concern  into 
the  face  of  his  fellows  and  wondered  which 
seat  would  be  vacant  next. 

Every  one  tried  to  keep  as  cheerful  as 
possible.  One  of  the  pleasant  memories 
of  that  voyage  that  remains  in  my  mind 
is  the  way  the  apprentice  boys  used  to 
gather  on  the  spar  deck  in  the  evening 
and  sing;  especially  do  I  remember  the 
clear  boy  soprano  voice  of  one  of  them 
whose  favorite  song  was  "  Tommy  Dodd," 
and  who,  as  a  volunteer  nurse,  was  very 
helpful  also  in  the  sick  bay.  This  boy 
sang  and  smiled  himself  safely  through 
the  whole  trial.  He  later,  perhaps  stimu- 
lated by  this  experience,  became  a  phy- 
sician and  for  many  years  has  practised 
here  in  Brooklyn. 

On  the  14th  day  out  we  had  arrived  in 


28  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS 

the  latitude  of  New  York.  Up  to  that 
date  37  men  in  all  had  been  stricken  with 
the  fever  and  17  had  died.  I  suppose  that 
the  Captain  must  have  seen  evidences  that 
his  surgeon  was  beginning  to  get  wobbly, 
for  he  determined  not  to  continue  the 
voyage  to  Maine,  as  had  been  the  original 
intention,  but  to  put  into  the  harbor  of 
New  York. 

With  what  feelings  of  joyful  expecta- 
tion of  speedy  deliverance  did  we  witness 
the  change  in  the  ship's  course  and  hail 
the  longed-for  city  of  refuge ! 

At  anchor  in  the  lower  quarantine  a 
relief  cutter  from  the  Navy  Yard  arrived 
with  surgeons  and  supplies ;  responsibility 
over;  the  tension  of  a  fortnight  broken; 
duty  performed,  the  doctor's  battle  was 
over,  and  he  himself,  sustained  to  that 
moment  by  the  sense  of  the  responsibility 
that  was  upon  him,  was  a  patient  being 
hurried  by  sympathetic  hands  to  a  hos- 
pital, now  to  receive  from  others  the  ser- 
vice which  he  himself  had  been  striving  to 
render  to  those  till  then  dependent  upon 
him.  When  the  days  of  convalescence 
came,  flowers  began  to  make  their  ap- 
pearance upon  the  table  at  his  bedside, 
for  information  as  to  his  presence  and 


LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS  29 

condition  had  reached  the  sender.  In  due 
time  he  was  declared  strong  enough  to 
venture  out.  There  must  have  been  some- 
thing appealing  in  the  gaunt  and  jaun- 
diced youth  when  he  began  to  mingle 
again  among  his  fellows,  for  people  would 
rise  to  give  him  a  seat  when  he  entered 
a  street  car,  and  the  Lady  of  the  Flowers, 
what  could  she  do  but  "  surrender  uncon- 
ditionally "  and  agree  to  become  a  future 
member  of  the  Ladies  Auxiliary  of  U.  S. 
Grant  Post! 

Under  what  different  conditions  have  I 
now  returned  from  those  tropical  seas! 
I  have  seen  the  yellow  monster  strangled 
by  the  simplest  sanitary  means,  applied 
with  intelligence,  with  vigor  and  without 
intermission.  Throughout  the  hitherto 
most  deadly  region  of  the  continent,  I 
have  seen  health  and  vigor  established, 
and  a  mighty  work,  uniting  two  oceans, 
carried  to  a  magnificent  completion  in  a 
manner  worthy  a  mighty  nation.  By  my 
side  stands  now  the  same  "  Lady  of  the 
Flowers "  whose  messages  of  remem- 
brance greeted  my  returning  conscious- 
ness forty-five  years  ago. 

Children  and  grandchildren  have 
greeted  our  return.  Added  to  these,  like 


30  LADY  OF  THE  FLOWERS 

a  garland  that  crowns  a  cup  already  full, 
is  the  warm  greeting  of  my  comrades  of 
this  Post.  To  them  all  I  bring  a  hearty 
hail  and  good  wishes.  With  pleasure  I 
take  up  again  the  duties  of  the  Com- 
mander. What  could  have  been  more  de- 
lightful than  to  find  that  the  first  of  these 
duties  is  to  welcome  to  these  halls  the 
Ladies  of  our  Auxiliary  Society?  Again 
do  I  say  to  you,  Madame  President  and 
Ladies,  you  are  welcome.  All  that  we  are 
and  have  is  yours. 


GRANT,  THE  EXEMPLAR  OF 
PATRIOTISM 


REMARKS  AT  THE  GRANT  BIRTHDAY  DINNER 
AT  THE  UNION  LEAGUE  CLUB  OF  BROOKLYN. 
APRIL  26,  1913.  REPLYING  TO  THE  WORDS  OF 
WELCOME  SPOKEN  BY  THE  PRESIDENT  OF 
THE  UNION  LEAGUE  CLUB 


Ill 

GRANT,  THE  EXEMPLAR  OF 
PATRIOTISM 

GRANT  POST  reciprocates  fully  the 
kindly  and  cordial  expressions  of  regard 
which  you,  Mr.  President,  have  so  felici- 
tously tendered  to  us.  For  these  many 
years  it  has  been  the  privilege  of  U.  S. 
Grant  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  to  share  with  the 
Union  League  Club  of  Brooklyn  the 
honor  of  celebrating  the  anniversary  of 
the  birthday  of  the  great  commander  of 
the  war  for  the  Union.  We  have  appre- 
ciated the  patriotic  feeling  which  has 
prompted  you  to  join  us  in  the  observ- 
ance; each  year  has  added  strength  to 
the  bonds  of  sympathy  between  us;  each 
year  as  it  passes  increases  the  importance 
of  the  part  which  such  an  organization 
as  the  Union  League  Club  must  play 
in  fostering  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the 
flag  in  this  nation.  Though  the  loyal 
interest  of  a  comrade  of  the  G.  A.  R. 
can  never  be  lessened,  still  our  numbers 
and  activities  are  diminishing;  it  is 
inevitable  that  this  should  be  so.  Dur- 
ing the  thirty  years  that  Grant  Post  has 


34  GRANT 

been  in  existence  already  two  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  of  its  comrades  have  gone  to 
their  long  home;  upon  those  of  us  who 
are  left  the  years  have  multiplied;  the  men 
who  twenty  years  ago  were  fifty  years 
of  age,  men  of  vigor,  prosecuting  with 
energy  their  work  in  the  community,  are 
seventy  now,  and  too  often  have  to 
acknowledge  the  disabilities  and  infirmi- 
ties incident  to  three  score  years  and  ten. 
We  have  been  preserved  to  see  a  greater 
country  develop  out  of  the  fragments,  the 
scattering  of  which  we  fought  to  prevent 
fifty  years  ago;  new  issues  have  arisen; 
new  perils  lurk  in  the  new  conditions  that 
have  taken  shape;  the  thirty  millions  of 
people  of  1860  have  become  a  hundred 
millions;  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  the 
glaciers  and  mines  of  Alaska,  the  planta- 
tions of  Porto  Rico  and  finally — greatest 
miracle  of  all — the  Canal  Zone  has  been 
added  to  our  territory.  Our  progress  in 
all  material  things,  those  things  which 
make  for  comfort,  for  wealth  and  for 
power,  has  exceeded  the  wildest  dreams 
of  the  most  enthusiastic  patriot  of  fifty 
years  ago.  All  that  has  been,  all  that  is, 
and  all  that  we  hope  for  the  future  of  our 
common  land  constitutes  the  prize  for 


GRANT  35 

which  these  veterans  offered  their  lives 
fifty  years  ago.  During  the  years  that 
have  since  elapsed  they  have  felt  them- 
selves charged  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  be 
guardians  of  its  honor.  To  younger 
hands,  however,  we  must  soon  pass  on  this 
duty,  this  privilege,  this  honor.  To  whom 
shall  we  turn  with  greater  assurance  of 
full  discharge  of  this  sacred  trust  than  to 
you,  Gentlemen  of  the  Union  League? 
You  do  well  to  honor  the  memory  of 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  by  such  a  gathering  as 
this,  for  it  was  by  the  wide  embracing 
vision,  the  unquestioning  loyalty  and  con- 
fidence of  success,  the  tireless  energy,  the 
simple  and  direct  and  ceaseless  efforts,  the 
masterful  tactics,  the  overwhelming  mili- 
tary genius  of  this  man,  more  than  of  any 
other  one  man,  that  the  dismemberment 
of  this  country  was  prevented,  the  Ameri- 
can Union  was  preserved  and  all  the 
magnificent  prosperity  and  power  of  to- 
day was  made  possible.  With  you  and 
all  other  lovers  of  their  country  the 
veterans  of  Grant  Post  share  in  these 
sentiments  of  grateful  remembrance. 

But,  in  addition,  it  is  ours  to  remember 
him  as  our  comrade  and  our  leader — - 
silent,  simple  and  approachable,  lovable 


36  GRANT 

and  loving,  human  all  through,  but  with 
a  tenacity  that  would  never  be  shaken  and 
a  directness  of  purpose  that  knew  no 
swerving  until  the  end  was  reached.  We 
love  best  to  think  of  him  as  he  galloped 
up  to  the  Appomattox  farmhouse  that 
fateful  April  morning  to  reap  the  reward 
of  all  his  toils  and  to  restore  peace  to  his 
torn  country,  not  with  pomp  and  circum- 
stance, but  dust  covered  and  roughly 
garbed,  without  a  sword  and  wearing  a 
common  soldier's  blouse;  thinking  not  of 
his  own  glory,  but  depressed  by  thoughts 
of  the  humiliation  of  his  vanquished  foe, 
and  planning  not  for  his  own  triumph,  but 
for  the  welfare  of  those  prisoners  of  war, 
"  how  they  might  put  in  a  crop  to  carry 
themselves  and  their  families  through  the 
next  winter,"  to  use  his  own  homely  words. 
I  feel  that  it  is  a  great  honor  to  stand 
in  this  presence  to-night  and  be  the 
spokesman  for  the  post  of  the  G.  A.  R. 
which  bears  his  honored  name.  The  per- 
sonal records  of  these  men  in  whose  name 
I  speak  cover  nearly  every  important 
battle  and  field  of  operation  of  those  dire- 
ful four  years.  With  Slemmer  at  Fort 
Pickens,  Farragut  at  New  Orleans  and 
Mobile,  Porter  and  Terry  at  Fort  Fisher, 


GRANT  37 

Grant  at  Vicksburg,  Thomas  at  Nashville, 
Meade,  Hancock  and  Warren  at  Gettys- 
burg, Sheridan  at  Cedar  Creek  and  Win- 
chester, Sherman  in  his  march  to  the  sea, 
Weitzel  as  he  entered  the  fallen  capital 
of  the  confederacy,  and  finally  with  Grant 
himself  during  all  the  engagements  of  the 
final  terrific  struggle  from  the  Wilder- 
ness to  Appomattox,  there  are  men  here 
to-night  who  marched  and  fought; 
suffered  cold  and  hunger  and  overwhelm- 
ing fatigue.  That  they  suffered  wounds 
let  absent  or  maimed  limbs  and  disfigur- 
ing scars  testify ;  that  they  knew  privation 
let  the  records  of  Libby  and  Salisbury 
Prisons  and  of  the  Andersonville  stockade 
witness!  We  do  not  forget  these  experi- 
ences; we  can  never  forget  them,  but  we 
would  not  parade  them,  nor  ask  for  con- 
sideration because  of  them.  We  refer  to 
them  now  only  that  they  may  furnish  a 
background  for  the  patriotic  fervor  of 
this  hour,  and  explain  the  devotion  and 
reverence  which  we  pay  to  the  one  who 
after  four  years  of  strife  was  able  to 
gather  into  his  one  powerful  hand  the  dis- 
cordant elements  of  the  nation's  forces 
and  marshal  them  with  resistless  power  to 
the  destruction  of  rebellion  and  the  estab- 


461844 


38  GRANT 

lishment  of  peace.  As  I  recite  these 
mighty  events,  and  recall  the  part  in  them 
which  these,  my  comrades,  have  played,  I 
feel  that  it  is  a  privilege  to  be  one  of  the 
least  among  their  number;  how  much 
more  a  source  of  gratification  that  to  me 
has  been  given  the  honor  and  duty  of 
speaking  for  them  to-night  and  of  ex- 
pressing their  pleasure  at  being  able  once 
more  to  join  with  you,  gentlemen  of  the 
Union  League,  in  honoring  the  name  of 
the  great  commander  of  the  war  for  the 
Union,  and  in  kindling  anew  at  our 
Nation's  altar  the  pure  and  white  flame 
of  love  for  and  devotion  to  our  common 
country. 


THE  NARROW  MARGIN  OF 
SAFETY 


REMARKS  AT  THE  ANNUAL  DINNER  TO  THE 
ASSOCIATE  MEMBERS  OP  THE  U.  S.  GRANT 
POST,  TUESDAY,  NOVEMBER  18,  1913 


IV 

THE  NARROW  MARGIN  OF 
SAFETY 

No  duty  is  more  agreeable  to  the  Com- 
mander of  Grant  Post  than  that  which 
falls  to  me  now,  to  extend  a  welcome  to 
the  members  of  our  associate  society  upon 
the  occasion  of  this  annual  dinner. 

Comrade-associates,  the  veterans  of  this 
post  of  the  G.  A.  R.  appreciate  most  fully 
your  co-operation  with  them  in  the  work 
of  cherishing  the  memory  of  deceased 
soldiers  of  the  war  for  the  Union,  provid- 
ing systematic  relief  to  needy  comrades 
and  widows  of  deceased  comrades,  and  in 
maintaining  undiminished  the  spirit  of 
loyalty  to  country,  for  which  objects  the 
Grand  Army  exists. 

Without  your  help  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  us  to  render  annually  those 
honors  to  the  memory  of  our  great  com- 
mander, which  have  formed  so  conspicu- 
ous a  part  of  the  public  labors  of  this  post, 
and  which  have  always  commanded  the 
admiration  of  a  grateful  people. 

To  invite  you  now  to  this  table  and  to 
extend  to  you  these  assurances  of  our 

41 


42  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

esteem  is  but  a  faint  expression  of  the 
sense  of  obligation  which  we  feel  toward 
you. 

To  keep  inviolate  the  honor  and  prestige 
of  the  nation  and  to  foster  a  spirit  of 
patriotic  devotion  to  its  flag  has  been  the 
special  mission  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  from  its  organization  to  the 
present  time.  With  the  lapse  of  years  the 
enthusiasm  and  devotion  of  the  comrades 
of  this  army  has  not  diminished,  but  has 
become  more  intense.  To  a  share  in  this 
spirit  we  invite  you  and  when  we  have  to 
transfer  the  traditions  of  the  Grand  Army 
to  your  younger  shoulders,  we  shall  do  it 
in  the  hope  that  you  will  see  to  it  that 
what  these  men  of  the  sixties  did  will  not 
only  not  be  forgotten,  but  also  that  the 
country  which  their  blood  and  their  toils 
saved  and  consecrated  shall  receive  no 
harm. 

During  the  past  year  the  duties  of  my 
position  have  tended  to  recall  to  my 
memory  with  special  vividness  the  strife 
of  so  many  years  ago ;  the  semicentennial 
observances  of  this  particular  year  have 
still  more  accentuated  these  reminiscences ; 
personal  visits  to  the  fields  of  Gettysburg, 
Chickamauga,  Missionary  Ridge  and 


MARGIN  OF  SAFETY  43 

Lookout  Mountain  have  served  to  make 
most  vivid  the  memories  of  the  deeds  that 
were  done  on  those  hallowed  spots.  As 
I  have  stood  on  the  soil  which  witnessed 
those  memorable  scenes  I  have  as  never 
before  realized  the  narrow  margin  which 
separated  vie  Lory  from  defeat,  glorious 
success  from  serious  disaster  in  those  days 
of  struggle. 

Thus  at  Gettysburg,  what  is  more  rea- 
sonable and  likely  than  that  the  Federal 
troops,  who  worn  out  by  the  forced 
marches  to  reach  the  position  had  en- 
trenched themselves  on  Gulp's  Hill,  should 
have  been  so  discouraged  by  the  reverses 
of  the  first  day  and  so  exhausted  by  the 
exertions  to  which  they  had  been  sub- 
jected, that  they  could  not  withstand  the 
onset  of  the  fierce  and  fresh  southrons, 
flushed  with  a  sense  of  approaching 
victory.  It  needs  no  violent  stretch  of 
the  imagination  to  see  the  Union  forces 
being  steadily  pushed  back,  and  the  hill 
everywhere  carried  by  the  Confederates. 
A  similar  state  of  affairs  might  have  been 
witnessed  on  the  Round  Tops.  Warren 
had  discovered  their  strategic  importance, 
but  so  had  Longstreet,  and  in  the  race  for 
their  occupation  which  followed  had 


44  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

Washburn  and  his  men  been  fifteen 
minutes  later,  these  strongholds  had 
already  been  seized  and  fortified  by  the 
Confederates.  At  the  close  of  the  sec- 
ond day's  fight  the  Confederates  would 
have  been  everywhere  victorious  and  the 
disorganized  Union  forces  would  have 
been  hemmed  in  on  three  sides  by  their 
enemies.  Let  us  suppose  for  a  moment 
that  this  really  was  the  outcome  of  the 
second  day's  fight:  inevitable  destruction 
awaited  Meade's  army  on  the  morrow; 
from  either  flank  and  in  front  the  in- 
vincible army  of  the  South  was  closing  in 
upon  them.  What  would  have  followed? 
A  rapid  withdrawal  of  the  Union  army 
into  Maryland  and  return  to  their  in- 
trenchments  about  Washington.  The 
retreat  was  imperative  and  with  all 
celerity  was  begun;  all  night  long  the 
Federal  troops  silently  stole  away,  leav- 
ing but  a  remnant  under  Hancock  to 
keep  up  a  semblance  of  occupation  on 
Cemetery  Hill.  On  the  morrow  the  ad- 
vance of  the  Confederate  centre  against 
this  remnant  met  with  but  feeble  resist- 
ance. The  attack  from  either  flank  was 
simultaneous.  Hopelessly  entrapped, 
Hancock  surrendered  to  Lee  all  that  was 


MARGIN  OF  SAFETY  45 

left  of  Meade's  army.  The  rout  was  com- 
plete. The  victory  was  decisive.  Lee's 
strategy  was  vindicated  and  his  position 
made  secure  among  the  masters  of  war. 
Sending  a  division  to  harry  the  rear  of 
the  retreating  Federals,  Lee  was  free  to 
press  on  at  his  leisure  to  Philadelphia  and 
to  levy  tribute  from  a  conquered  North! 

In  the  West  almost  at  the  same  hour 
we  can  picture  an  equally  decisive  advan- 
tage gained  by  the  Confederates  at  Vicks- 
burg.  The  silent  and  indefatigable  Grant 
after  struggling  for  weeks  among  the 
lagoons  and  morasses  of  Arkansas  in  an 
effort  to  encompass  Vicksburg,  finally 
routed  by  Joseph  E.  Johnson  at  a  decisive 
battle  in  Mississippi,  and  his  command 
either  taken  prisoners  or  so  scattered  in 
their  flight  as  to  lose  all  semblance  to  an 
army. 

Sherman  driven  back  by  Pemberton 
upon  Memphis;  the  siege  of  Vicksburg 
raised!  As  a  necessary  consequence  an 
impartial  fate  would  have  meted  out  in 
Tennessee  an  equal  disaster  to  the  North- 
ern arms.  Rosecrans,  impetuous  and  over- 
confident, had  led  the  armies  of  the  Ten- 
nessee and  the  Cumberland  quite  to  the 
Georgia  border  when  he  was  checked  by 


46  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

Bragg  at  Chickamauga  and  driven  into 
the  flat,  hill  surrounded  plain  of  Chatta- 
nooga, where  he  remained  beleaguered, 
cut  off  from  all  supplies,  until  starvation 
compelled  him  to  surrender  his  entire 
force  as  prisoners  of  war.  In  the  West, 
in  the  Central  South,  in  the  East,  every- 
where victory  attending  the  Confederate 
arms  during  that  fateful  season.  With 
no  organized  force  of  any  strength  left  to 
oppose  him,  Bragg  would  have  pushed 
steadily  northward,  reoccupied  Nashville, 
taken  possession  of  Kentucky,  and  finally 
encamped  his  troops  along  the  southern 
bank  of  the  Ohio  River.  Meanwhile  in 
the  East  fancy  depicts  the  most  mo- 
mentous events  transpiring.  Lee  was  im- 
pregnably  entrenched  near  Philadelphia, 
and  controlled  all  railway  communications 
from  the  North  leading  to  Washington; 
the  Federal  capital  was  at  his  mercy  and 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  were  virtually 
prisoners  in  their  entrenchments.  The 
pathway  to  the  sea  down  the  Potomac 
was  the  only  outlet  open  to  them,  and  this 
more  valuable  as  a  way  of  escape  than 
for  any  other  purpose. 

Everywhere  throughout  the  North  the 
opponents  of  the  war  were  multiplied  and 


MARGIN  OF  SAFETY  47 

incessant  in  their  demands  for  the 
abandonment  of  further  attempts  to 
coerce  the  South.  The  end  speedily  came; 
the  Union  cause  had  practically  to  sue  for 
terms  and  to  accept  what  the  South  felt 
disposed  to  give.  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
and  the  Ohio  River  became  the  northern 
boundaries  of  a  new  republic  within  whose 
boundaries  was  included  the  former  Capi- 
tal of  the  original  Union.  Throughout 
the  Northern  States  a  revulsion  of  feeling 
took  place  that  swept  from  every  position 
of  power  or  influence  those  who  had  sup- 
ported this  disastrous  war.  Valandigham 
became  governor  of  Ohio  and  to  have  been 
a  member  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden 
Circle  became  a  mark  of  distinction.  Lin- 
coln died  of  a  broken  heart  as  he  saw  the 
calamity  that  had  overwhelmed  the  Union, 
for  the  perpetuity  of  which  he  had  given 
his  entire  strength. 

Such,  then,  would  have  been  the  out- 
come of  the  contest  in  the  sixties  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Federal  Union.  The 
immediate  result  would  have  been  a  new 
republic,  the  motive  of  whose  creation  was 
the  perpetuation  of  negro  slavery,  as  an 
economic  institution  of  divine  ordination, 
and  of  such  importance  to  the  welfare  of 


48  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

that  section  of  America  in  which  it  had 
been  planted  that  every  other  considera- 
tion was  secondary  to  it. 

Second  only  in  importance  to  this  dic- 
tum as  to  negro  slavery  was  the  doctrine 
that  any  sovereign  state  preserved  the 
right  to  withdraw  from  association  with 
other  states  at  any  time  according  to  its 
own  will. 

To-day,  after  fifty  years,  we  can  see 
the  only  superstructure  that  could  have 
been  erected  on  a  foundation  of  slavery 
and  disunion.  In  everything  pertaining 
to  material  welfare  the  rest  of  the  world 
has  made  tremendous  strides  during  this 
period.  But  the  new  republic  has  been 
out  of  tune  with  the  other  nations  of  the 
earth.  Cotton,  and  rice  and  sugar  and 
slaves  have  continued  to  be  produced;  de- 
velopment of  any  white  self-respecting 
middle  class  has  been  impossible;  while 
the  white  population  has  decreased,  the 
blacks  have  multiplied  to  an  amazing  de- 
gree; many  of  the  more  energetic  and  in- 
telligent among  them  have  from  time  to 
time  escaped  across  the  border  to  the  free 
states,  from  whence  they  have  not  failed 
to  foment  discord  among  their  fellows  left 
behind.  Servile  rebellions  have  kept  the 


MARGIN  OF  SAFETY  49 

land  in  a  state  of  continued  agitation  and 
every  home  has  been  continually  over- 
shadowed by  the  terror  of  the  expected 
time  when  among  the  blacks  should  arise 
a  leader  who  could  combine  and  marshal 
them  to  the  destruction  of  their  white 
masters.  A  state  of  martial  law  has 
reigned  throughout  the  slave  states  most 
of  the  time.  The  new  Confederacy  has 
become  impoverished,  bankrupt,  a  dere- 
lict among  the  nations  of  the  world. 

Simultaneously  with  the  creation  of  the 
Slave  Republic,  its  neighbor  to  the  south, 
Mexico,  had  crowned  as  its  emperor  a 
scion  of  European  royalty,  Maximilian. 
The  new  monarch  was  backed  by  the 
power  and  prestige  of  France,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  new  empire  was  aided 
and  approved  by  the  leaders  of  the  new 
South.  But  here  the  spirit  of  State  in- 
dividualism in  which  the  southern  con- 
federation was  begotten  bore  unexpected 
fruit.  For  the  great  state  of  Texas, 
realizing  that  its  material  interests  could 
be  more  advanced  by  a  union  with  the 
new  empire,  early  abandoned  the  Con- 
federacy and  became  a  part  of  the  Mexi- 
can domain,  in  the  management  of  whose 
affairs  it  at  once  took  a  dominating  place. 


50  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

With  the  infusion  of  Texan  energy,  and 
capacity,  and  the  continued  supply  of 
material  help  and  large  emigration  from 
France,  the  new  empire  developed  its 
resources  and  established  peace  and  se- 
curity within  its  borders. 

Meanwhile,  in  its  isolation  on  the  high 
tablelands  among  the  Rocky  Mountains 
the  Mormon  Commonwealth  continued  to 
grow  in  population,  material  wealth  and 
political  power.  Its  religious  propaganda 
was  assiduously  pushed  among  the  igno- 
rant masses  of  Europe  from  whom  it  con- 
stantly received  accessions  of  converts  and 
emigrants.  It  early  declared  itself  free 
from  any  allegiance  to  any  other  power 
and  neither  the  Northern  States  nor  the 
Southern  Confederacy  was  in  any  condi- 
tion to  coerce  it.  Its  fanatical  people 
were  not  lacking  in  energy  nor  in  political 
sagacity,  and  they  pushed  themselves  in 
every  direction  from  their  great  central 
point,  the  temple  at  Salt  Lake  City,  until 
they  controlled  all  that  vast  and  rich  terri- 
tory which  extends  between  the  Rockies 
and  the  Sierras  from  the  border  of  British 
America  on  the  north  to  the  Mexican 
boundary  on  the  south.  Here  polygamy 
continues  to  be  practised  as  a  religious 


MARGIN  OF  SAFETY  51 

observance  and  the  world  witnesses  in  this 
Western  continent  the  existence  of  two 
nations  whose  reason  for  being  is  re- 
spectively human  slavery  and  plural 
marriage. 

Meanwhile,  the  States  upon  the  Pa- 
cific Coast,  California  and  Oregon,  cut 
off  from  all  organic  relation  to  the  Atlan- 
tic or  Middle  States,  naturally  early  de- 
clared themselves  independent  and  formed 
a  Republic  of  the  Pacific. 

Most  significant,  however,  has  been  the 
growth  and  development  of  British 
America.  It  acquired  by  purchase  from 
Russia  the  great  territory  of  Alaska  with 
its  endless  stretch  of  seacoast  and  its 
wealth  of  minerals  and  fish  and  timber. 
It  pushed  its  railroads  from  ocean  to 
ocean.  The  fertility  of  the  great  wheat 
fields  of  Alberta  and  Manitoba  drew  so 
many  settlers  from  the  Northwest  portion 
of  the  old  United  States  that  these  states 
were  nearly  depopulated.  The  whole 
Canadian  country  received  an  impetus 
that  carried  it  with  tremendous  strides 
along  the  path  of  material  success  and 
political  power.  It  alone  of  the  nations 
of  North  America  exercised  a  continuity 
of  government  from  ocean  to  ocean;  its 


52  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

people  enjoyed  a  freedom  that  was  suited 
to  the  vastness  of  its  domain  and  the 
purity  of  its  moral  code  as  a  nation.  In 
the  courts  of  the  world  it  was  recognized 
as  a  great  and  progressive  power.  Mean- 
while a  most  singular  and  lamentable 
position  is  now  occupied  by  what  is  left 
of  the  old  United  States  of  America.  It 
is  not  difficult  to  analyze  the  conditions 
which  have  combined  to  depress  this  peo- 
ple. To  some  extent  they  have  shared  in 
the  commercial  and  scientific  activities  of 
the  time.  The  soil  has  been  fertile,  manu- 
facturing industries  have  been  main- 
tained ;  mines  and  wells  have  continued  to 
produce;  the  railway  and  telegraph,  the 
steamboat  and  the  electric  motor  and  the 
automobile  have  brought  men  near  to  one 
another  and  broadened  methods  and 
created  opportunity,  but  all  spirit  of  pride 
in  country,  of  loyalty  and  patriotism 
seems  to  be  dead.  The  United  States 
have  no  longer  a  place  of  influence  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  It  has  been  put 
in  a  strait- jacket.  It  has  no  glorious  past. 
Its  present  is  ignoble.  Its  future  is  a 
problem. 

Such,  alas,  is  the  lamentable  condition 


MARGIN  OF  SAFETY  53 

which  has  overtaken  this  once  proud  Re- 
public. The  seeds  of  dissension  were 
sown  at  its  birth;  that  unity  among  its 
discordant  elements  should  continue  for 
any  length  of  time  was  impossible.  At 
the  end  of  the  first  seventy-five  years  of 
its  existence  the  institution  of  negro 
slavery  had  become  the  dominating  force, 
social,  political  and  economic,  over  one- 
half  of  the  Republic's  domain,  and  out  of 
its  conditions,  to  defend  it  and  extend  it 
had  arisen  a  body  of  men  closely  bound 
together  by  a  common  aim  and  practi- 
cally ready  to  sacrifice  everything  else  to 
secure  one  purpose.  They  acted  as  a  unit ; 
they  controlled  twenty  millions  of  peo- 
ple; opposed  to  them  were  a  group  of 
states  who  had  no  common  bond;  a  large 
proportion  of  whose  people  were  in 
sympathy  with  their  brethren  of  the 
South;  a  people  given  to  commerce  and 
manufactures,  without  warlike  spirit,  as 
a  people  devoid  of  the  sentiments  of  de- 
votion to  country,  among  whom  the  terms 
loyalty  and  patriotism  were  empty  names. 
No,  no,  my  comrades  and  associates,  I 
will  not  push  the  vision  farther.  It  was 
the  unexpected,  the  impossible  that  hap- 


54  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

pened.  At  the  call  of  their  country 
from  out  of  this  peace  loving,  trade  en- 
grossed, apathetic,  discordant  North 
nearly  three  millions  of  men  rallied  to  the 
flag  of  the  Union  for  the  defense  of  its 
integrity;  350,000  of  these  proved  the 
depth  of  their  devotion  by  the  gift  of 
their  lives.  The  spirit  of  loyalty  and 
patriotism  was  not  extinct;  it  needed  but 
the  pressure  of  the  country's  need  to 
bring  it  into  the  fullest  flower.  Had  this 
service  been  half-hearted,  all  the  things 
that  my  historical  fancy  has  depicted 
might  have  followed.  That  we  have  to- 
day a  united,  powerful,  glorious  country, 
first  in  all  the  forward  movements  of  the 
Twentieth  Century,  is  due  to  the  devo- 
tion exhibited,  the  sacrifices,  and  the  toils 
endured  by  the  men  who  were  following 
its  flag  in  the  fields  of  combat  fifty  years 
ago.  Gulp's  Hill  was  not  taken  by  the 
assaulting  Confederates,  nor  did  Long- 
street  reach  first  the  Round  Tops,  but 
everywhere  on  this  critical  field  of  Gettys- 
burg the  defenders  of  the  Union  were 
victorious,  and  it  was  the  army  of  Lee 
that  slunk  away  across  the  Potomac  and 
not  that  of  Meade.  But  had  the  en- 


MARGIN  OF  SAFETY  55 

thusiasm  of  the  men  of  the  North  failed 
on  these  dreadful  days  of  July,  of  1863, 
what  could  have  prevented  the  results  my 
fancy  has  drawn  for  you? 

Among  our  own  number  there  still  re- 
main nearly  a  score  of  men  who  con- 
tributed to  the  victory  of  that  day.  Tait 
and  O'Reilly,  Woodhead  and  Cowen, 
French  and  Clark  and  Rapp,  Shafer  and 
Southerton,  Paine,  Raymond,  Lawrence, 
Miller  and  McDonald,  are  still  with  us  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  work  on  that 
field  and  to  receive  the  meed  of  well  de- 
served, grateful  appreciation  which  their 
country  awards  them.  Grant  was  not  ex- 
tinguished in  Mississippi  and  among  those 
who  were  with  him  in  his  triumph  at 
Vicksburg  were  our  own  comrades,  Hed- 
ley  and  Gardner  and  Baird. 

Comrade-associates!  If  I  have  been 
somewhat  prolix  in  my  effort  to  depict 
our  country's  crisis  fifty  years  ago,  and 
to  suggest  some  idea  of  what  we  were 
saved  from  by  those  who  came  to  the  de- 
fense of  the  Union  in  those  dark  days,  it 
is  only  that  I  might  strengthen  in  the 
hearts  of  every  generous  and  noble  youth 
of  this  generation  those  sentiments  of 


56  MARGIN  OF  SAFETY 

patriotic  service  and  loyal  devotion,  for 
which  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic 
most  conspicuously  stands.  We  appre- 
ciate your  co-operation  with  us  in  this 
work  in  the  past,  and  we  implore  its  con- 
tinuance in  the  future  that  the  fires  of 
patriotism  may  never  grow  dim  on  the 
altars  of  American  hearts. 


A  BUILDING'S  HONOR 


REMARKS  IN  INTRODUCTION  OF  SPEAKERS  AT 
THE  MORTGAGE  JUBILEE  OF  GRANT  POST, 
G.  A.  R..  DECEMBER  19.  1913 


A  BUILDING'S  HONOR 

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF,  Department 
Commander,  Ladies  of  the  Auxiliary  So- 
ciety, associate  members,  comrades  of  the 
Grand  Army:  That  it  is  no  ordinary 
occasion  that  has  brought  us  together  is 
witnessed  by  the  very  presence  of  such 
an  audience  as  this.  It  is  my  privilege  and 
my  great  pleasure,  as  Commander  of  this 
Post  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
to  welcome  you  now  to  these  head- 
quarters. From  its  organization  in  1883 
until  the  year  1907,  twenty- four  years, 
this  post  held  its  encampments  in  hired 
halls.  In  December,  1906,  just  seven 
years  ago,  having  acquired  it  by  purchase, 
we  took  formal  possession  of  this  com- 
fortable building  for  our  headquarters, 
to  which  we  had  added  this  most  com- 
modious and  suitable  hall  for  our  encamp- 
ments. This  house  was  formerly  one  of 
the  old  homesteads  of  Brooklyn  and  this 
building  is  identified  with  much  of  the  his- 
tory and  growth  of  this  great  city.  It 
witnessed  the  outburst  of  loyalty  in  the 
spring  of  '61,  when  our  flag  was  fired 

59 


60  A  BUILDING'S  HONOR 

upon  at  Sumter.  It  welcomed  the  re- 
turn home  of  the  victorious  army  in  '65. 
It  has  been  a  part  of  the  wonderful  com- 
mercial and  political  development  of  New 
York  that  was  one  of  the  fruits  of  the 
victory  which  that  army  won.  But  now 
its  crowning  honor  has  been  achieved  in 
having  become  the  home  of  a  body  of  men 
who,  unsurpassed  by  any  in  this  genera- 
tion, exemplify  the  spirit  of  patriotic  de- 
votion and  of  loyal  service  to  their 
country's  flag;  who  still  carry  with  them 
the  spirit  of  '61,  unquenched  by  the  scars 
of  wounds  sustained,  or  the  memories  of 
perils  and  hardships  endured,  and  un- 
dimmed  by  the  passing  years.  This  post 
bears  the  name  of  the  great  chieftain  who 
brought  to  a  successful  issue  the  war  for 
the  preservation  of  the  Union;  a  detail 
from  its  ranks  guarded  the  remains  of 
General  Grant  at  Mt.  McGregor  and 
never  abated  its  watch  until  they  were  de- 
posited in  the  vault  provided  for  them  at 
Riverside.  On  each  recurring  Memorial 
Day  since,  this  Post  has  paraded  at  the 
tomb  of  General  Grant  at  Riverside  and 
conducted  commemorative  services  that 
have  commanded  the  interest  and  tender 
approval  of  the  whole  nation. 


THE  HOUSE  HONORED 

The  Headquarters  of  U.  S.  Grant  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  489  Washington  Avenue, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


A  BUILDING'S  HONOR  61 

During  its  history  U.  S.  Grant  Post 
has  borne  upon  its  rolls  the  names  of  more 
than  600  comrades,  of  whom  240  still  sur- 
vive. Mindful  that  impartial  time  was 
steadily  and  inevitably  lessening  this 
number,  and  that  the  burden  of  years  was 
sure  to  become  more  and  more  heavily 
felt  by  the  living  and  that  the  claims  of 
fraternity  and  charity  were  certain  to 
steadily  increase,  it  has  been  an  ever 
present,  an  important  and  pressing  prob- 
lem with  us  and  with  our  friends  to  make 
sure  the  continued  possession  of  needed 
comforts  and  facilities  for  the  work  of  this 
Post  and  to  increase  its  relief  funds. 

The  final  absolute  wiping  out  of  any 
indebtedness  upon  this,  our  headquarters 
property,  appeals  to  us  therefore  most 
vividly  at  this  time.  To  join  with  us  in 
celebrating  this  event  we  have  invited  you 
to  come  here  to-night.  We  appreciate 
highly  the  cordiality  and  readiness  with 
which  our  invitation  has  been  accepted  by 
you  all  and  in  particular  we  wish  to 
acknowledge  the  effort  made  by  the 
Commander-in-Chief ,  and  by  our  Depart- 
ment Commander  in  coming  from  the  dis- 
tant cities  in  which  they  have  their  homes 
to  be  here  to-night. 


62  A  BUILDING'S  HONOR 

In  September  last  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  the  Grand  Army  its  Na- 
tional Encampment  assembled  on  soil 
which  during  the  war  for  the  Union  was 
fighting  ground.  Among  the  most  en- 
during and  delightful  memories  of  my 
own  life  are  the  scenes  of  that  Chatta- 
nooga Convention;  all  the  capacities  for 
hero  worship  in  my  soul  were  called  forth 
as  I  looked  on  the  thousands  of  veterans 
gathered  in  council  in  the  great  audi- 
torium of  Chattanooga,  and  thought  of 
what  they  represented,  thought  also  of  the 
thousands  of  graves  in  the  National  Ceme- 
tery almost  in  view  from  the  windows  of 
that  auditorium  and  of  the  death  which 
the  comrades  who  lay  there  suffered  that 
their  country  might  live;  thought  of  the 
greater  auditorium  constituted  by  Chatta- 
nooga's plain  with  Lookout  Mountain  on 
one  side  and  Mission  Ridge  on  the  other, 
and  between  them  the  vista  that  extends 
to  the  field  of  Chickamauga,  and  of  the 
scenes  which  that  auditorium  had  wit- 
nessed. 

It  was  fitting  that  upon  one  whose 
blood  had  been  poured  out  on  those  very 
fields  and  who  had  braved  the  perils  of 
the  contests  that  those  hills  had  witnessed 


A  BUILDING'S  HONOR  63 

should  be  conferred  the  highest  honors  of 
the  Grand  Army  at  that  time.  To  the 
Grand  Army  in  Brooklyn  is  given  now 
the  honor  to  receive  the  soldier  selected 
by  those  veterans  gathered  on  that  sacred 
spot  to  be  their  Commander-in-  Chief, 
WASHINGTON  GARDNER.  To  him  we  ex- 
tend salutations  and  await  his  words. 


THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 


THE  PASSING  OF 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


VI 
THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 

WE  were  a  congenial  company  who  sat 
at  the  corporal's  table  that  Sunday  after- 
noon in  September.  There  was  Gilman, 
with  his  empty  but  eloquent  sleeve  and 
his  silvery  voice ;  Cummings,  who  had  been 
the  honored  Department  Commander  of 
a  great  State;  Parsons,  who  had  ridden 
with  Sheridan,  and  was  at  Appomattox; 
George  Brown,  that  model  Officer  of  the 
Day,  who  had  undergone  the  tortures  of 
the  Andersonville  stockade  but  had  lived 
to  tell  of  them;  the  Commander  of 
Grant  Post,  thirsty  for  information  and 
full  of  admiration  for  the  glorious  records 
of  his  comrades,  and  the  corporal,  him- 
self, eager,  enthusiastic,  intense,  a 
wonderful  example  of  what  an  indomi- 
table will  can  do  with  a  mangled  body. 
Then  there  were  the  ladies,  the  gracious 
daughters  of  the  host,  and  Mrs.  Parsons, 
Mrs.  Brown  and  Mrs.  Pilcher,  the  Lady 
of  the  Flowers.  We  had  all  arrived  in 
Washington  that  morning,  returning 
from  a  week  in  Chattanooga  in  attendance 

67 


68  THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 

on  the  National  Encampment  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  which  had 
been  held  on  that  historic  site.  The  week 
had  been  a  full  one,  for  not  only  Look- 
out Mountain,  Missionary  Ridge,  and  the 
hills  of  Chickamauga  awakened  in  us  the 
most  intense  emotions,  but  the  presence 
among  the  throngs  of  thousands  of  aging 
veterans  who  filled  the  streets  and  clus- 
tered around  each  historic  spot,  many  of 
whom  had  been  themselves  actors  in  the 
drama  that  was  played  there  fifty  years 
before,  gave  a  reality  to  the  legends  of 
the  place  that  was  thrilling. 

We  were  therefore  in  a  receptive  mood 
during  the  day  we  were  privileged  to  stay 
in  Washington  on  our  return  trip.  The 
morning  was  bright,  later  to  cloud  over 
and  break  into  rain,  like  so  many  life 
stories.  Washington  was  beautiful  with 
the  browns  and  yellows  and  reds  of  the 
early  autumn  foliage.  We  had  enjoyed 
the  crisp  morning  air  in  which  we  made 
the  drive  through  the  Potomac  Improve- 
ment, to  be  made  memorable  as  the  site 
of  the  glorious  Lincoln  Memorial ;  thence 
through  the  picturesque  roads  of  the  Rock 
Creek  Park,  and  the  ground  of  the  Sol- 
diers' Home,  which  had  so  often  been  the 


THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY  69 

refuge  of  the  great  President  when  he 
sought  respite  from  the  cares  of  the 
White  House.  Naturally  the  conversa- 
tion turned  upon  Lincoln  during  the 
after-dinner  talk,  the  more  so  as  we  knew 
that  our  host  had  been  on  duty  in  Wash- 
ington during  the  later  years  of  the  civil 
strife. 

"  Yes,  I  was  at  his  death-bed,"  said 
Tanner.  "  I  wonder  if  you  would  be 
interested  to  hear  my  story?  " 

And  then  to  our  eager  requests  he 
told  us  the  following  tale:* 

In  April,  1865,  I  was  an  employee  of 
the  Ordnance  Bureau  of  the  War  De- 
partment, and  had  some  ability  as  a  short- 
hand writer.  The  latter  fact  brought  me 
within  touch  of  the  events  of  the  awful 
night  of  April  14.  I  had  gone  with  a 
friend  to  witness  the  performance  that 
evening  at  Grover's  Theatre,  where  now 
stands  the  New  National.  Soon  after  ten 
o'clock  a  man  rushed  in  from  the  lobby 
and  cried  out,  "  President  Lincoln  has 
been  shot  in  Ford's  Theatre."  There  was 
great  confusion  at  once,  most  of  the  audi- 
ence rising  to  their  feet.  Some  one  cried 

*  Published  by  permission  of  the  Hon.  James  Tanner. 


70  THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 

out,  "  It's  a  ruse  of  the  pickpockets :  look 
out!"  Almost  everybody  resumed  his 
seat,  but  almost  immediately  one  of  the 
cast  stepped  out  on  the  stage  and  said, 
;<  The  sad  news  is  too  true; — the  audience 
will  disperse." 

My  friend  and  myself  crossed  to  Wil- 
lard's  Hotel  and  there  were  told  that 
Secretary  Seward  also  had  been  killed. 
Men's  faces  blanched  as  they  at  once 
asked,  "What  news  of  Stanton?  Have 
they  got  him,  too?  "  The  wildest  rumors 
soon  filled  the  air. 

I  had  rooms  at  the  time  in  the  house 
adjoining  the  Peterson  House,  into  which 
the  President  had  been  carried.  Hasten- 
ing down  to  Tenth  Street,  I  found  an 
almost  solid  mass  of  humanity  blocking 
the  street  and  the  crowd  constantly  en- 
larging. A  silence  that  was  appalling 
prevailed.  Interest  centred  on  all  who 
entered  or  emerged  from  the  Peterson 
House  and  all  of  the  latter  were  closely 
questioned  as  to  the  stricken  President's 
condition.  From  the  first  the  answers 
were  unvarying, — that  there  was  no  hope. 

A  military  guard  had  been  placed  in 
front  of  the  house  and  those  adjoining 
but  upon  telling  the  Commanding  Officer 


THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY  71 

that  I  lived  there,  I  passed  up  to  my  apart- 
ment, which  comprised  the  second  story 
front  of  the  house.  There  was  a  balcony 
in  front  and  I  found  my  rooms  and  the 
balcony  thronged  by  the  other  occupants 
of  the  house.  Horror  was  in  every  heart 
and  dismay  on  every  countenance.  We 
had  had  just  about  a  week  of  tumultuous 
joy  over  the  downfall  of  Richmond  and 
the  collapse  of  the  Confederacy  and  now 
in  an  instant  all  this  was  changed  to  the 
deepest  woe  by  the  foul  shot  of  the 
cowardly  assassin. 

It  was  nearly  midnight  when  Major- 
General  Augur  came  out  on  the  stoop  of 
the  Peterson  House  and  asked  if  there 
was  any  one  in  the  crowd  who  could  write 
shorthand.  There  was  no  response  from 
the  street  but  one  of  my  friends  on  the 
balcony  told  the  General  there  was  a 
young  man  inside  who  could  serve  him, 
whereupon  the  General  told  him  to  ask  me 
to  come  down  as  they  needed  me.  So  it 
was  that  I  came  into  close  touch  with  the 
scenes  and  events  surrounding  the  final 
hours  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  life. 

Entering  the  house  I  accompanied 
General  Augur  down  the  hallway  to  the 
rear  parlor.  As  we  passed  the  door  of  the 


72  THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 

front  parlor  the  moans  and  sobs  of  Mrs. 
Lincoln  struck  painfully  upon  our  ears. 
Entering  the  rear  parlor,  I  found  Secre- 
tary Stanton,  Judge  David  K.  Carter, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  Honorable  B.  A. 
Hill,  and  many  others. 

I  took  my  seat  on  one  side  of  a  small 
library  table  opposite  Mr.  Stanton  with 
Judge  Carter  at  the  end.  Various  wit- 
nesses were  brought  in  who  had  either  been 
in  Ford's  Theatre  or  up  in  the  vicinity  of 
Mr.  Seward's  residence.  Among  them 
were  Harry  Hawk,  who  had  been  Asa 
Trenchard  that  night  in  the  play  "  Our 
American  Cousin,"  Mr.  Alfred  Cloughly, 
Colonel  G.  V.  Rutherford  and  others.  As 
I  took  down  the  statements  they  made  we 
were  distracted  by  the  distress  of  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  for  though  the  folding  doors  be- 
tween the  two  parlors  were  closed,  her 
frantic  sorrow  was  distressingly  audible 
to  us. 

She  was  accompanied  by  Miss  Harris 
of  New  York,  who,  with  her  fiance,  Major 
Rathbone,  had  gone  to  the  theatre  with  the 
President  and  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Booth,  in 
his  rush  through  the  box  after  firing  the 
fatal  shot,  had  lunged  at  Major  Rathbone 


THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY  73 

with  his  dagger  and  wounded  him  in  the 
arm  slightly.  In  the  naturally  intense 
excitement  over  the  President's  condition, 
it  is  probable  that  Major  Rathbone  him- 
self did  not  realize  that  he  was  wounded 
until  after  he  had  been  in  the  Peterson 
House  some  time,  when  he  fainted  from 
loss  of  blood,  was  attended  to,  his  wound 
dressed,  and  he  taken  to  his  apartments. 
He  and  Miss  Harris  subsequently 
married. 

Through  all  the  testimony  given  by 
those  who  had  been  in  Ford's  Theatre 
that  night  there  was  an  undertone  of  hor- 
ror which  held  the  witnesses  back  from 
positively  identifying  the  assassin  as 
Booth.  Said  Harry  Hawk,  "  To  the  best 
of  my  belief,  it  was  Mr.  John  Wilkes 
Booth,  but  I  will  not  be  positive,"  and  so 
it  went  through  the  testimony  of  others 
but  the  sum  total  left  no  doubt  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  assassin. 

Our  task  was  interrupted  very  many 
times  during  the  night,  sometimes  by  re- 
ports or  dispatches  for  Secretary  Stanton 
but  more  often  by  him  for  the  purpose  of 
issuing  orders  calculated  to  enmesh  Booth 
in  his  flight.  "  Guard  the  Potomac  from 
the  city  down,"  was  his  repeated  direction. 


74  THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 

"  He  will  try  to  get  South."  Many  dis- 
patches were  sent  from  that  table  before 
morning,  some  to  General  Dix  at  New 
York,  others  to  Chicago,  Philadelphia, 
etc. 

Several  times  Mr.  Stanton  left  us  a  few 
moments  and  passed  back  to  the  room  in 
the  ell  at  the  end  of  the  hall  where  the 
President  lay.  The  doors  were  open  and 
sometimes  there  would  be  a  few  seconds 
of  absolute  silence  when  we  could  hear 
plainly  the  stertorous  breathing  of  the 
dying  man.  I  think  it  was  on  his  return 
from  his  third  trip  of  this  kind  when,  as  he 
again  took  his  seat  opposite  me,  I  looked 
earnestly  at  him,  desiring  yet  hesitating 
to  ask  if  there  was  any  chance  of  life.  He 
understood  and  I  saw  a  choke  in  his  throat 
as  he  slowly  forced  the  answer  to  my 
unspoken  question, — "  There-is-no-hope." 
He  had  impressed  me  through  those  awful 
hours  as  being  a  man  of  steel  but  I  knew 
then  that  he  was  dangerously  near  a  con- 
vulsive breakdown. 

During  the  night  there  came  in,  I  think, 
about  every  man  then  of  prominence  in 
our  national  life  who  was  in  the  Capital  at 
the  time  and  who  had  heard  of  the 
tragedy.  A  few  whom  I  distinctly  recall 


THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY  75 

were  Secretaries  Welles,  Usher,  and  Mc- 
Cullough,  Attorney-General  Speed  and 
Postmaster  General  Dennison,  Assistant 
Secretaries  Field  and  Otto,  Governor 
Oglesby,  Senators  Sumner  and  Stewart, 
and  Generals  Meigs  and  Augur.  I  have 
seen  many  asserted  pictures  of  the  death- 
bed scene  and  most  of  them  have  Vice- 
President  Andrew  Johnson  seated  in  a 
chair  near  the  foot  of  the  bed  on  the  left 
side.  Mr.  Johnson  was  not  in  the  house 
at  all  but  in  his  rooms  in  the  Kirkwood 
house  and  knew  nothing  of  the  events  of 
that  night  'til  he  was  aroused  in  the  morn- 
ing by  Senator  Stewart  and  others  and 
told  that  he  was  President  of  the  United 
States. 

With  the  completion  of  the  taking  of 
testimony  I  at  once  began  to  transcribe 
my  shorthand  notes  into  longhand.  Twice 
while  so  engaged  Miss  Harris  supported 
Mrs.  Lincoln  down  the  hallway  to  her 
husband's  bedside.  The  door  leading  into 
the  hallway  from  the  room  wherein  I  sat 
was  open  and  I  had  a  plain  view  of  them 
as  they  slowly  passed.  Mrs.  Lincoln  was 
not  at  the  bedside  when  her  husband 
breathed  his  last.  Indeed,  I  think  it  was 
nearly  if  not  quite  two  hours  before  the 


76  THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY 

end,  when  she  paid  her  last  visit  to  the 
death  chamber,  and  when  she  passed  our 
door  on  her  return,  she  cried  out,  "  Oh! 
my  God,  and  have  I  given  my  husband 
to  die!" 

I  have  witnessed  and  experienced  much 
physical  agony  on  battlefield  and  in  hospi- 
tal but  of  it  all,  nothing  sunk  deeper  in 
my  memory  than  that  moan  of  a  breaking 
heart. 

I  finished  transcribing  my  notes  at  six 
forty-five  in  the  morning  and  passed  back 
into  the  room  where  the  President  lay. 
There  were  gathered  all  those  whose 
names  I  have  mentioned  and  many  others, 
—about  twenty  or  twenty-five  in  all,  I 
should  judge.  The  bed  had  been  pulled 
out  from  the  corner  and  owing  to  the 
stature  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  lay  crosswise 
on  his  back.  He  had  been  utterly  uncon- 
scious from  the  instant  the  bullet  ploughed 
into  his  brain.  His  stertorous  breathing 
subsided  a  couple  of  minutes  after  seven 
o'clock.  From  then  to  the  end  only  the 
gentle  rise  and  fall  of  his  bosom  gave 
indication  that  life  remained. 

The  Surgeon-General  was  near  the  head 
of  the  bed,  sometimes  sitting  on  the  edge 
thereof,  his  finger  on  the  pulse  of  the 


THE  CORPORAL'S  STORY  77 

dying  man.  Occasionally  he  put  his  ear 
down  to  catch  the  lessening  beats  of  his 
heart.  Mr.  Lincoln's  pastor,  the  Rever- 
end Dr.  Gurley,  stood  a  little  to  the  left  of 
the  bed.  Mr.  Stanton  sat  in  a  chair  near 
the  foot  on  the  left,  where  the  pictures 
place  Andrew  Johnson.  I  stood  quite 
near  the  head  of  the  bed  and  from  that 
position  had  full  view  of  Mr.  Stanton 
across  the  President's  body.  At  my  right 
Robert  Lincoln  sobbed  on  the  shoulder 
of  Charles  Sumner. 

Stanton's  gaze  was  fixed  intently  on  the 
countenance  of  his  dying  Chief.  He  had, 
as  I  said,  been  a  man  of  steel  throughout 
the  night  but  as  I  looked  at  his  face  across 
the  corner  of  the  bed  and  saw  the  twitch- 
ing of  the  muscles  I  knew  that  it  was  only 
by  a  powerful  effort  that  he  restrained 
himself.  The  first  indication  that  the 
dreaded  end  had  come  was  at  twenty- two 
minutes  past  seven  when  the  Surgeon- 
General  gently  crossed  the  pulseless  hands 
of  Lincoln  across  the  motionless  breast 
and  rose  to  his  feet. 

Reverend  Dr.  Gurley  stepped  forward 
and  lifting  his  hands  began,  "  Our  Father 
and  our  God  "  —I  snatched  pencil  and 
notebook  from  my  pocket  but  my  haste 


Thi 


(ram  which  It  wa,  borrows* 


Form  L9 — 15m 


Plluli&l*    = 

462.1     The  Commander's 
1T40PC     Year. 


Illllllll  I'  !J     !i  r-C    Oft1          7 


E 
462.1 

N48P6 


Univ< 

So 

L 


